Obama’s Obamacare Lecture, Extent Of Gruber’s Role, And Lerner Not Out Of The Woods Yet *Open Thread*

There is so much going on this week, from the manufactured race-baiting outrage about the police stopping an illegal party with trespassing teens engaging in all kinds of behavior from drinking, sex, fights, and drugs (hopefully we will hear less now that the officer has resigned); to bomb threats in Washington; to the New York Times showing it has become more like Star Magazine than the “newspaper of record” with its crazy reporting about Marco Rubio (now his finances); and more, it is hard to narrow it down.

Until Obama lectured the Supreme Court a second time on Obamacare, that is. Yes, once again Obama is crossing the line telling the Supreme Court how it really should be voting. Now, unfortunately, this did work for him before on this issue, but let’s hope the SCOTUS has a bit more backbone this time around.

Here is what Judge Napolitano had to say about Obama’s recent comments directed at the Court from BizPacReview:

[…] Obama also said he was confident the court would not rule against his administration. Obama, Napolitano said, was trying to strong-arm co-equal branch of government.

He noted that with the Supreme Court’s docket drawing to a close, the decision in the case has likely already been made, but hasn’t been announced. The president, Napolitano said, is preparing the public for the fallout from a decision that goes against him.

“He thinks he’s going to lose, and he’s trying to downplay the significance of that loss and disrespect the court,” Napolitano said.

“Guess what, Mr. President, the Supreme Court and not the president has the final word on the meaning of the law and its consistency with the Constitution. That’s been the law of the land for 230 years.” […] (Click here to read the rest.)

Well, Obama has already demonstrated he cares little for the Law of the Land with the numerous actions he has taken all by his own self, but I appreciate the Judge saying so.

And speaking of Obamacare, you will never guess what has come out now about good ol’ (ahem) Jonathan Gruber and Obamacare. Thanks to EMAILS now revealed, we know even more about the extent of Gruber’s involvement in designing this behemoth of a plan, and how much Obama lied through his teeth about Gruber’s involvement. From Daily Caller:

A top Obama administration health official considered putting MIT economist Jonathan Gruber to work on Obamacare to be an initiative of such “key political importance” that it was expedited because of “political push” from the Obama administration, emails released by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) reveal.

The agency released 750 pages of heavily-redacted records on Monday to The Daily Caller and other news outlets in response to a Freedom of Information Act request.

In one telling exchange after Gruber’s Obamacare work was first reported in 2010, one HHS analyst told another that having Democrats in charge “across the board” would “stop some scrutiny” into the arrangement. Gruber’s work attracted scrutiny because the Obama administration failed to disclose the academic’s support for the health-care law without disclosing that he was paid $392,000 to help craft it.

The biggest takeaway from the emails is that they undermine one claim made by the Obama administration that Gruber was merely a bit player in the development of Obamacare. Described by many as the “architect” of the health-care law, Gruber was thrown under the bus after numerous videos surfaced last year of him bragging that Obamacare was passed because of “a lack of transparency” into the law and because the American people “were too stupid” to realize they were being manipulated into supporting it.

I know – you are SHOCKED at that revelation, aren’t you? Yeah, I didn’t think so. It does kinda make you wonder just what else is in the “heavily redacted” emails from HHS. I am sure there are all kinds of interesting things in there. But one thing is clear – Gruber isn’t sounding all that peripheral now, is he? There is more:

The desperation to bring Gruber on board — and his close contact with other key Obamacare players — is in stark contrast to President Obama’s statement in the wake of Gruber’s video scandal — dubbed “Grubergate” — that the economist was merely “some adviser who never worked on our staff.”

Though others in the Obama administration have claimed that Gruber only served a technical role and did not help craft Obamacare policy, Gruber advertised his services as “integrated.” In a technical description attached to his resume, Gruber said that he would provide the Obama administration with his economic model as well as feedback on policy. He stated that he could provide policy feedback on the individual mandate as well as on what lessons could be learned from the rollout of Massachusetts’ universal health care law, which Gruber helped design.

Calling the email release “absurdly redacted,” Phil Kerpen, president of the free-market group American Commitment and a staunch critic of Obamacare, said that the records “clearly confirm that Gruber was a key architect of Obamacare, not just a guy who ran the numbers.”

“His lucrative sole-source contract … was expedited by White House political pressure,” Kerpen added, also noting that the Obama administration “thought they could get away with it because Democrat controlled Congress at the time.” […] (Click here to read the rest.)

I think it is pretty clear that those trying to downplay Gruber and his involvement are a bunch of lying liars who will lie at the drop of a hat to protect Obama and downplay the influence of this far-left economist who has clear and utter disdain for the people of this country by his own comments.

Finally, and briefly, it looks like Lois Lerner of IRS Shame, isn’t quite out of the woods yet. From Western Journalism:

Clarification as to whether all emails that have been recovered by TIGTA have now been turned over to the IRS for review and processing in response to [Judicial Watch’s] request, the volume of those emails, and the time frame in which the IRS anticipates completing its review and production of responsive emails, and

Clarification as to whether the processing is complete for all 1,268 backup tapes to determine what emails are recoverable, and if not, when the processing is expected to be complete.

Federal Judge Emmet Sullivan issued the order last Thursday for the IRS to provide its answers by Friday, June 12.

“The Obama IRS obstructed and lied to a federal judge and Judicial Watch in an effort to hide the truth about Lois Lerner’s emails,” Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said. “The IRS is out of control and Judicial Watch is happy that Judge Sullivan has taken this key step to remind the agency that it is accountable to the rule of law and the American people.” […] (Click here to read the rest.)

This should be interesting, shouldn’t it? I look forward to the follow-up here, and hopefully finding out exactly what Lerner did, who else was involved, and what the comeuppance will be (hey, I can hope!).

How about you? Feel free to talk about any of the above or whatever else is on your minds. This is an Open Thread.

do you ever wonder if backtrack allows visitors to the world in his head? He spouts so much garbage, it must be busy in that world.

He has shown that he can not handle the real world, and is happy in his own little world. Most people would be committed to a mental hospital with that thinking, but due to his handlers he was installed in the white house

Eric Bolling just said he had come from not one but TWO suicide calls right before this pool debacle. But now, Casebolt may be facing charges when the kids who engaged in this deplorable behavior get off SCOT-FREE.

You ain’t only kidding. When I saw a photo of the kind of boat Rubio had, I just had to laugh at the very clear idiocy of this writer trying to cast aspersions against Rubio. What a moron. As someone said the other day, that’s abt the size of the lifeboats for luxury yachts.

They can’t have it both ways. They can’t hammer Romney for having too much money (though, ironically, no Dems ever have too much even when they are gazillionaires), and then attack soemone for being a normal every-day American.